A Candlelight Courting

By Joyce DiPastena

When Burthred comes courting on Christmas Eve, Meg rejects his advances. She has her heart set on becoming a nun and insists that he call her Christina, the spiritual name she has chosen for herself. She tries to make him swear on her box of holy relics that he will not pursue her, but he carefully words his oath to allow him to stay in her candlelit chamber and try to change her mind. 

What Meg does not confess is that her reliquary box holds a secret. 

Burthred needs a wife, and no one will satisfy him except Meg. He swore on his father's deathbed that he would marry her. But Burthred has a secret, too. When they come together before the Yule fire, their shared revelations will either join their hearts together or tear them apart.

 

 

A Candlelight Courting is a 13,500 word short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sable Tyger Books
• Release date: Dec 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9780986239656

Joyce DiPastena

Joyce DiPastena dreamed of green medieval forests while growing up in the dusty copper mining town of Kearny, Arizona. She filled her medieval hunger by reading the books of Thomas B. Costain (where she fell in love with King Henry II of England), and later by attending the University of Arizona where she graduated with a degree in history, specializing in the Middle Ages. The university was also where she completed her first full-length novel...set, of course, in medieval England. Later, her fascination with Henry II led her to expand her research horizons to the far reaches of his “Angevin Empire” in France, which became the setting of her first published novel, "Loyalty’s Web" (a 2007 Whitney Award Finalist). When she’s not writing, Joyce loves to read, play the piano, and spend time with her sister and friends. A highlight of her year is attending the annual Arizona Renaissance Festival . Joyce is a multi-published, multi-award winning author who specializes in sweet medieval romances heavily spiced with mystery and adventure. She lives with her two cats, Clio and Glinka Rimsky-Korsokov, in Mesa, Arizona.

Book preview

A Candlelight Courting

A CANDLELIGHT COURTING

A SHORT CHRISTMAS ROMANCE

JOYCE DIPASTENA

CONTENTS

Author’s Note

A Candlelight Courting

Glossary of Medieval Terms

Also by Joyce DiPastena

About the Author

SUMMARY

When Burthred comes courting on Christmas Eve, Meg rejects his advances. She has her heart set on becoming a nun and insists that he call her Christina, the spiritual name she has chosen for herself. She tries to make him swear on her box of holy relics that he will not pursue her, but he carefully words his oath to allow him to stay in her candlelit chamber and try to change her mind.

What Meg does not confess is that her reliquary box holds a secret.

Burthred needs a wife, and no one will satisfy him except Meg. He swore on his father’s deathbed that he would marry her. But Burthred has a secret, too. When they come together before the Yule fire, their shared revelations will either join their hearts together or tear them apart.

A Candlelight Courting is a 13,500 word short story.

Copyright 2012 Joyce DiPastena

Sable Tyger Logo by The Write Designer

http://www.thewritedesigner.com

Sable Tyger Books

[e-mail]

All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced in print or electronically, other than brief excerpts for the purpose of reviews, without the written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of names, characters, places, and incidents to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

eISBN: 978-0-9862396-5-6

092023

AUTHOR’S NOTE

A Candlelight Courting was inspired by an incident in the life of Christina of Markyate, the twelfth century founder and first prioress of Markyate Priory in Bedfordshire, England. Christina, whose birth name was Theodora, was betrothed to a man named Burthred before becoming a nun. While I have kept the names of Burthred and Christina for A Candlelight Courting, all other elements of this story are completely fictional.

England 1168 ~ Norgate Castle

Christina ran her thumb over the third smooth bead and repeated another Ave. Her parents had taken away her devotional table, with its carved crucifix and kneeling bench and a rest support for her arms while she repeated her rosary. They thought they had taken her rosary, too, but she had hidden a second one under her mattress.

Hail Mary, full of grace ...

Her chamber’s floor chafed her knees through her woolen skirts. Her parents had removed her prayer pillow, too. She should have thought to dispose of that comfort herself. The austerity her father viewed as punishment only prepared her for her chosen future. She had blessed him for the reminder and promptly blown out her candles and doused the coals in her brazier, as well. Her teeth chattered against the chill air that seeped through her gown’s coarse fabric, but she pressed doggedly on with her prayer.

... blessed art thou among women ...

Her voice pitched higher and louder as the strains of the music swelled from the great hall of Norgate Castle below stairs, until her determination to drown out the competing noise nearly left her shouting. Why were they not singing solemn hymns on this holy night, instead of dancing like heathens? She had been compelled to attend enough of her father’s Christmas feasts through the years to recognize the driving beat that thrummed the timbers of the floor as one of the lively carole dances Sir Alun was partial to.

She imagined her father roaring in his deep bass voice, The holly and the ivy, as his heavy body lumbered around in an otherwise lightly skipping circle that included her mother and uncles and aunts and cousins and more meddlesome neighbors than she cared to number. The rising of the sun, the running of the deer, they would sing in their turn in united refrain. When her uncle the abbot reproved them, they would widen their eyes and innocently deny the words held any pagan meanings, but rather a mystical symbolism so wise a priest as he could surely discern.

He had frowned at them for eighteen years,

Reviews for A Candlelight Courting

[literarychanteuse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This short story is wonderful! The author has created one of the most unique love stories I think I have ever read. Christina, a compelling young woman during medieval times that truly touches the heart, is faced with marriage instead of fulfilling her dream of dedicating her life to the church. How she manages to find love and a guardian of her heart in Burthred, her betrothed is amazing. An excellent choice for Christmas or anytime of the year.